Palliation is a laudable concept and an important goal in the therapy of all patients with malignant disease. Unfortunately, in the current day and age, the adjective “palliative” is being used in a derogatory manner that suggests palliation of suffering somehow lessens the importance or impact that such a therapy has upon individuals with the disease.

The management of patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) has been transformed over the course of the last two decades following the introduction of successful molecularly targeted therapies—all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) and arsenic trioxide (ATO)— which act in concert to induce degradation of the PMLRARα oncoprotein formed by the chromosomal translocation t(15;17)(q22;q21).